How should you start using social media for your CPA practice?

Forget about social media. Seriously.

There are many misconceptions when it comes to social media. One of the most common is some variation of the following: “I want a Facebook page, a LinkedIn account and I want to Tweet” or “I want to get more ‘Likes’ ‘Followers’ and ‘Shares’ on my social media.”

After hearing this over and over from prospective clients for over five years, I realized something important.

These people were lying to me.

Okay, maybe lying is a bit harsh. In reality they were simply not finishing their sentences. The rest of their sentences were, or at least should have been: “I want a Facebook page, a LinkedIn account and I want to Tweet so my company can, somehow, make more money.”

Let Theodore Levitt illustrate:

drill-quote

So no, you do not want a Facebook page, a LinkedIn account or a Twitter feed. That’s just a quarter-inch drill. You really want to earn more money to grow your CPA practice. That’s your quarter-inch hole.

How can you do this?

Forget about social media for a moment. Seriously. Pretend it doesn’t exist.

Now that you have mentally destroyed LinkedIn, list your CPA practices’ objectives and apply social media tools to those objectives.

Examples of business objectives include, but are not limited to:

1.       More leads

2.       Better quality leads

3.       Improve partner work performance

4.       Increased employee productivity / decreased employee turnover

5.       Add value to current clients

It is not easy to implement these objectives. After all, you didn’t get your CPA license so you can Tweet. Indeed, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

In the meantime, start using social media by articulating your CPA firm’s goals. (Later I will share ideas on how to use social media to achieve business goals.)

When you start with business goals, you end up with business results. And, hopefully, complete sentences.

 

photo credit: Kasaantuu ne pikkuhiljaa via photopin (license)